This invention relates to a method and apparatus for transporting material in admixture with a fluid such as water or air from one location to another. The invention is especially applicable in civil engineering applications such as in tunnel construction.
In present day tunnel construction, the shield driving or cofferdam method has been often used when the tunnel must be constructed in soft ground.
Conventionally, the excavated mud or sand and water are separately transferred to the inlet of the tunnel by means of a long belt conveyor and a water discharge pipe.
Since conveyance and such discharging devices must be positioned within the tunnels the work space within the tunnel becomes more limited and cannot be efficiently employed. The tunnel construction is thus hampered by the presence of such apparatuses.
Applicant's invention is premised upon the proposition that if the water produced by the tunneling can be transported out of the tunnel together with material such as mud or sand that has been excavated by, for example, a shielding machine, then the separate means for transferring the solid material, such as a tunnelling belt conveyor, can be eliminated thereby resulting in an improvement of the tunnelling construction as well as a simplification of the tunneling facilities.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method for removing excavated materials and water from a tunnelling site and to transfer such materials to any desired location.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for carrying out the foregoing method.